Langston Hughes

I am responding to Hope Towner’s blog question from Reflecting Circle #3 (Harlem Renaissance). She asked us to describe a piece of literature and write about the author’s emotions and how it relates to Harlem.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time in our country’s history where freedom of expression through any avenue in the art world was accepted and embraced. An opportunity like this is very rare even in today’s society. After the Great Migration when thousands of blacks migrated up north to escape oppression, an enclave of creative ideas was founded.

After finishing the assigned reading for this period, the writings of Langston Hughes stuck out in my memory. Hughes went to Columbia University in New York for a year, but never really connected with that environment. Once entering Harlem, he knew that he had found his home for creative expression. Hughes was not afraid to write about the lower-class black culture as he saw it. The poem “Mother to Son” is one of my favorites. Hughes wrote about how life has not been a “crystal stair” and that there are hard ships on every step. This literary work is an endearing mother showing her son that through her example, making it through life and surviving is possible, no matter the hardships. Hughes also wrote “The Weary Blues” which made the reader picture the lazy sway of the man on the piano. “Harlem” is yet another example of his blunt depiction of what happens to a dream deferred. Hughes questions if the dream will dry up, or run… sugar over, or sag? I think that this poem can relate to Hughes life. He always had the intelligence to do whatever he wanted, but his dream never became a reality until he took residence in Harlem. Hughes work stood the test of time, outlasting the end of the movement.